Electrification in the North Sea

  • Client  
  • Year  
  • Business unit  

One of the many ways the offshore industry is significantly reducing emissions is by sourcing power from onshore or from offshore renewables but what are companies actually doing about it?

Apollo has been supporting clients from feasibility through to detailed design with a range of quick wins (easy to implement solutions) and longer term planned improvements.

A big piece of this is in electrification

Oil and gas operators are looking at various electrification concepts from offshore wind or power from shore, however for some assets the cost benefit doesn’t stack up, for others there is a greater prize.

Apollo has been providing advice to our client base in this area, drawing from a decade working in the marine and subsea sectors to give knowledge and thought through working ideas of how to progress asset electrification.

Apollo took a holistic approach and ensured consideration of all the moving parts of such a development, none of these are in isolation. At the end we delivered a roadmap for how to do and what does not make sense from a commercial or environmental perspective.

In parallel, Apollo also worked through concept to the commissioning of a number of process optimisation scopes (that is another case study in itself!) which has cumulatively led to nearly 20% reduction in emissions.

And for all you engineers who want more details:

What exactly we did

  • a cost benefit analysis
  • Liaison with key stakeholders and vendors
  • Full topsides tie-in analysis including structural, electrical, process
  • Consideration of voltage and distribution issues
  • Understanding of production uptime and efficiency
  • Major input considerations:
    • CAPEX of cable including owner share/crossing arrangements
    • OPEX saving through electricity
    • Quantification of money from sales gas that would previously be used as fuel gas
    • COcost reduction benefit
    • Cumulative discounted gas flow considered

Added benefit

  • Bridging the gaps between oil and gas and renewables type scopes we have an unrivalled database of costs, which aid faster decisions
  • Fully understand costs, risks and opportunities for electrifying the asset, providing cost benefit analysis against cessation of production
  • Review of potential adjoining developments
  • Present to client and external stakeholders on findings and way forward

Our Solution

  • Delivered from our dedicated energy integration team
  • We provided the client with the costs to do it, the benefits and the path forward with clear stage gate opportunities.
  • Accumulation of other modification work will see emissions reduced by 20%

So regardless of where you are in your energy transition journey and if you have an engineering challenge, let us know on offshorerenewables@apollo.engineer